The Dallas Morning News, February 7, 2001
HAMMOND, Ind. (AP) – The Rev. Jack Hyles, a prominent Christian fundamentalist leader who founded Hyles-Anderson College, died Tuesday in Chicago after undergoing open-heart surgery. He was 74.
Hyles, 74, died at the University of Chicago Hospitals, where he had been transferred Friday from a Merrillville hospital, said hospital spokesman John Easton.
Hyles' death in the wake of his Jan. 30 heart attack stunned his congregation and students and faculty at Hyles-Anderson College, a Baptist college with an enrollment of 2,700 students.
"He was our motivator and our leader," said Wendell Evans, who has served as college president since the Schererville school's founding by Hyles in 1972.
When the college's students were told about the fatal complications of Hyles' bypass surgery in Chicago, "the whole school lost it," Kent said.
Tears streamed down the faces of teachers and students as they huddled in classrooms even after school had been dismissed.
Hyles, who was born in Italy, Texas, and grew up in a poverty-stricken area of Dallas, attended Southwest Baptist Seminary after graduating from Eastern Texas Baptist College.
Before coming to Hammond in 1959, he led the Miller Road Baptist Church in Garland for about six years, from a membership of 44 people to 4,000.
Hyles, who authored 48 books and pamphlets with a circulation of more than 14 million copies in sales, also co-founded Baptist-based elementary, junior high and high schools in Schererville.
Funeral services were pending.